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If the adults and younger people working for change across the globe are serious about changing society, we must level out the playing field for all people. Folk singer Raffi said, "Children are the most reasonable people I know. Their days are spent trying to make sense of the world, searching for meaning, figuring things out. Their perception is magical, and their questions are intelligent quests for understanding.
This leads into my second point: YOUTH PROGRAMS SUCK. I don't say this flippantly, or without cause. I've been working in youth programs and as a trainer for fourteen years, since I was 14, and I've seen hundreds of youth programs around the US and Canada. Today I firmly believe that "youth work" is flawed from the get-go, and that it isn't sufficient for our efforts to bring peace and justice to the world.
The people who usually participate at the "highest levels" in youth programs are usually upper- or middle-class, highly privileged, and not representative of their age-group peers. We must quit pretending that these efforts are enough. Programs that do focus on other youth are usually charity operations, dealing only with "at-risk" young people. These efforts offer a double-edged sword to the youth they "serve": first they isolate youth from the rest of society, and second they segregate people according to race, religion, and economic status. Without the thorough integration of ALL people throughout ALL levels of social change, the situation will not change. ALL people, especially minorities, people of color, low-income people, and others must be included at the table.
Which brings me to the third reason why society must stop seeing youth as different from other people: "YOUTH" DOESN'T MATTER. Being young doesn't make you better or worse than anyone else. Being young doesn't make you smarter, faster, or despite what the media says, prettier. Your age is, for the most part, irrelevant to the rest of society. Businesses see young people as just another demographic. Many major religions have rites-of-passage before "youth" kicks in. And most popular schools treat "youth" the same as children all the way through college.
So what's the difference? There are issues that revolve around voting, drinking, sex, and self-determination, but if society stops seeing youth and starts seeing people, I think that as a society we would quickly determine that those 'rights' should be based on ability, not age.
There are issues around child labor, but how many 15-year-olds in North America and Europe work today? A lot, according to the news. While child labor is a serious issue in many third world countries, the world would see the situation a lot differently if it would stop singling those countries out simply because of the age of the workers. What conditions exist that kids must work in the first place? Seeing youth as people would force us to look at the REAL issues at hand.
Which answers the question of child soldiers, as well. Why do "those" countries employ children as soldiers? Because they can't find adults? Or because a major country backed a civil war that terrorized the country and forced peasants in the country to hide in the city, therefore rendering them inaccessible to the military?
Why does the role of "youth" exist around the world today? Many would argue that it is a psychological role; I would elaborate and call it a psycho-social development. Before our nations deemed it nessesary to have a role for "youth," younger people were seen as people. In the 1960s Robert Kennedy said, "The answer is to rely on youth- not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." That sums up a former societal opinion about youth. Now its come to this, and that's why we must change.
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Adam Fletcher
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Comments
Transition...celebrating the stages of life Jennifer Lynn Wheaton | Dec 12th, 2003
Thank you for your insights and for sharing your idea. This article peaked my interest as I am researching "rites of passage" and the role that they play in societies around the world. Although I agree that age segregation has fractured our communities and caused problems that no social safety net could ever solve...I do believe that honoring the different stages of life in playful, artful & respectful ways is a means to healing the chasm that has grown between the different age groups in our societies. The concept of a rite of passage is one that I believe can evolve to serve as a way to honor whatever stage in life a person finds oneself. IF a whole community can celebrate together to honor the growth of each and every human being as they transition from stage in their life to another...will that person not be compelled to contribute to that community in meaningful ways throughout the entirety of their life. But to honor & celebrate these transitions we must also acknowledge that they are taking place...this also means acknowledging the point in ones life when they do take place...ie, their age. Are we not able to simply shift our language from dealing with what is "wrong" with youth, the elderly, mid life...and start focussing on what is "right" with these stages of life...and CELEBRATE them.
I must also note while on the topic that the idea of a generation gap does not truly exist...as this idea assumes that no one was born between the parents of today and the children of today. What about those who are in between these two groups...do they not have a valuable role to play in building a bridge between the perceived gap?
Sangeeta | Feb 26th, 2008
I think being a youth myself - the proposed statement is a profound one, as there definitely is an hierarchy based on age in predominant global culture.
Western culture has this way of emphasizing the importance of children and education. All of that is fine and dandy - it is one of my own personal beliefs and I hold it quite firmly. However, the proposition made allows one to reconsider our own sense of "reality" and escape into a world where your capacities and abilities to contribute to mainstream societies (its decision-making processes and such) is not undermined in the exact same way it is in Western society. It is that notion of pride - that notion that makes us believe we have a certain level of power over those that are younger than us: making the instantaneous association with a lack of consciousness to 'immaturity', when there really is no direct definition of what 'mature' truly is; it is a matter of interpretation and socialization.
I realized when I was younger that it starts from that moment we spend with primary school children and feel bewildered with what they have to say - when it is something profound or intelligent, we ooh and awe, we giggle, but little time is spent comprehending what that particular mind is trying to convey.
Being a youth - struggling in school to make my mark - I realize that there is a system, and it is unreasonable. It does not consider my opinions until I have a degree - or until I have am 'worthy' of making a mark. And we internalize the matter - we accept that we need to establish ourselves into 'somebodies' until some other 'somebody' considers what we have to say as important. However, what if that thing I have to say could be said now? What if it was a contribution to a greater solution to one of the many problems the global communitty faces? And what if I don't live until the day I become a 'somebody' or someone hears what I've got to say.
There goes an idea - a thought - the possibility for positive change, due to a little ageism.
Thank you for writing this article, it really will make me reconsider how I, myself, treat others and my own self.
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